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A9
news
Friday, April 18, 2014 www.guardian.co.tt Guardian
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RESHMA RAGOONATH
Union leaders must move beyond
industrial relations and stand up for all
citizens not just their workers.
Banking, Insurance and General Work-
ers’ Trade Union (BIGWU) president Vin-
cent Cabrera said so yesterday as the Joint
Trade Union Movement (JTUM) rolled into
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s
Siparia constituency to distribute fliers for
its public demonstration on May 23 in
Port-of-Spain.
The demonstration coincides with the
fourth anniversary of the People’s Part-
nership Government.
“Leaders need to be involved in the
socio-political issues. We need to stand
up for our citizens, too. We cannot only
stand up for our workers,” Cabrera said.
Yesterday members of the Oilfields
Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), BIGWU
and the Steel Workers Trade Union, went
to Penal, metres away from Persad-Bisses-
sar’s constituency office, to drum up sup-
port for the march, entitled “It’s time to
take a stand for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Cabrera told reporters he was certain
when he walked through the market he
would hear all the vendors’ problems.
“We have to make those problems our
issues and that is how you build a move-
ment,” Cabrera said.
The JTUM, he said, was calling on all
citizens to make a stand on May 23 where
it would focus on the major issues of crime
and corruption, political victimisation,
abuse of power and authority, nepotism,
reckless spending, disrespect, lies and dis-
cretion.
He said on Wednesday a BIGWU del-
egation met with President Anthony Car-
mona where it raised the question of values
in T&T.
“It seems T&T no longer has values and
morals and all of that is reflected by what
we are talking about (in the demonstration).
“We seem to have lost our headspace
where morals and values are concerned
and anything goes,” he said.
Cabrera said it was a “divine providence”
that the date for the march fell on the eve
of the fourth anniversary of the May 24
general election.
RESHMA RAGOONATH
reshma.ragoonath@guardian.co.tt
Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal yes-
terday admitted a “bitter dispute” between
the National Building Code Committee and
T&T Bureau of Standards (TTBS) was delaying
the release of funding for the formulation of
a national building code.
The T&T Guardian understands the dispute
stems from a motion of no confidence in the
TTBS that was unanimously carried by the
Building Code Committee after the bureau failed
to provide a proper secretariat for it to func-
tion.
Moonilal confirmed the dispute yesterday as
he responded to complaints by the committee’s
chairman, Shyankaran Lalla, that funds were
not being disbursed even though it was approved
since December.
The minister, via a text message, said: “Cab-
inet has approved funds but there is a bitter
conflict between the Building Code Committee
and the T&T Bureau of Standards. I am trying
to deal with this matter now.”
He said he expected the situation to be
resolved in 14 days.
Lalla, when contacted by T&T Guardian,
admitted the committee and the TTBS were at
loggerheads.
However, he said, that issue should not and
was not preventing the work of the commit-
tee.
“TTBS is but one of the members of the
committee. The committee is made up of a
wider group of providers and that should not
prevent us from dealing with that. We have
been trying to get a date for a meeting with
him,” he said.
Lalla contended that while the committee
was informed, on December 5, that $12 million
in funding was approved for the code, today
no funds have been released.
He added: “Not a cent of that money has
been disbursed to the National Building Code
Committee for the development of a building
code.
“We have very serious concerns that if this
money is not disbursed to us with a sense of
urgency we may not see a national building
code before 2015.”
Lalla also expressed concern over the near
nine-hour gridlock traffic along the Uriah Butler
Highway on Wednesday after a transport truck
carrying water, near Munroe Road Flyover, col-
lided with three vehicles when one of its tyre
blew out.
He said the gridlock showed “serious gaps
in the level of emergency response for simple
things like accidents on the highway and it now
leaves the big question open: Are we prepared
for a disaster in this country?”
Retired Appeal Court judge
Roger Hamel-Smith has been
reappointed as a member of the
Judicial and Legal Service Com-
mission (JLSC).
His reappointment for a three-
year term was announced in a
press release on Tuesday from the
Office of President Anthony Car-
mona.
The JLSC, a constitutionally
enshrined committee, is mandated
to appoint and discipline sitting
judicial officers, including High
Court judges and masters as well
as magistrates.
The other members are Chief
Justice Ivor Archie, who chairs the
commission, retired Judge Annes-
tine Sealey, former university lec-
turer Dr Marjorie Thorpe and
attorney David Patrick.
Hamel-Smith was admitted to
practise as a solicitor in T&T in
May 1969 and was appointed a
puisne judge in 1987. Three years
later he was elevated to the Appeal
Court.
While presiding as an appellate
judge Hamel-Smith acted as Chief
Justice on 16 occasions during the
tenure of the last three Chief Jus-
tices.
Unions to expand role
Cabrera as JTUM rolls into Siparia:
President of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers’ Union Vincent Cabrera, an executive member of the Joint Trade Union
Movement (JTUM) hands out fliers yesterday to promote the JTUM’s May 23 march in Port-of-Spain. PHOTO: RISHI RAGOONATH
Moonilal: Bitter row
delays building code
Hamel-Smith back on JLSC
Roger Hamel-Smith
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